Products for cleaning hard surfaces are widely available on the market. These products are used for two purposes, the first being to clean soil from the surface and the second being to leave the surface with an aesthetically pleasing finish, e.g. spot-free or shiny. However, products available on the market often require rinsing with water after use. Typically when the water dries from the surface water-marks, smears, streaks, or spots are left behind.
These water-marks, it is believed may be due to the evaporation of water from the surface leaving behind deposits of minerals which were present as dissolved solids in the water, for example calcium, magnesium and sodium ions and salts thereof or may be deposits of water-carried soils, or even remnants from a cleaning product, for example soap scum. Droplets or beads of water can dry to leaving noticeable spots or marks known as water-marks. This problem is particularly apparent when cleaning ceramic, steel, plastic, glass or painted surfaces. A means of solving this problem, known in the art is to dry the water from the surface using a squeegee or cloth or chamois before the water-marks form. However, this drying process is time consuming and requires considerable physical effort.
PCT Publication WO 97/48927 is directed to a cleaning composition, method, and apparatus for cleaning exterior windows. This publication states that it discloses a no scrub/no wipe method for cleaning exterior windows without filming or spotting. A spray gun comprising separate chambers for a cleaning composition and an ion exchange resin is disclosed. The method involves spraying a cleaning composition on the window surface, preparing purified rinse water by passing the rinse water through the ion exchange resin and rinsing the window surface with the purified rinse water. While the use of this spray gun, may initially solve the problem of residual water marks on surfaces on drying, it is has been reported that some spray guns have an inefficiently short life-span that requires the user to replace the ion-exchange resin cartridge after each use.
PCT Publication WO 98/01223 is directed to a portable hand held device for converting tap water into a spray of deionized water. This publication states that it discloses a device for producing a controlled spray of deionized water, useful for rinsing cars and windows. This publication further states that the prior art has failed to provide teachings of a lightweight and readily portable, economical device and method for “real time” conversion of tap water into deionized water which can be used to, among other things, rinse surfaces after cleaning without leaving water spots if the surface is not wiped dry.
While spray guns and other hand held device, such as the above examples, are portable, there are some problems. For example, hand held devices are inherently limited in size, weight, and bulkiness to accommodate their hand held use. Thus, hand held units usually have an ion exchange resin cartridge inside the spray gun. This limits the size of the ion exchange resin cartridge, and consequently the life span of the ion exchange resin cartridge is short, and may require more frequent changes. In addition, a person washing a building or large surface may want to soak or brush the surface or bring the pressurized water closer to the surface without mounting a ladder or other type of extension. A spray gun is not optimum in these instances.
Thus, a need exists for an improved deionizing water apparatus that efficiently cleans a surface without the appearance of water-marks. There is a need for an improved apparatus not suffering from the limitations of hand held spray guns, such as short life of the ion exchange cartridges. There is a need for a deionized water apparatus that improves portability and longevity based on larger ion exchange resin cartridges, and extends usage in a variety of situations requiring a portable unit.